Machines for fully automated fabrication of food products are known; however, the customer experience with such machines is often limited as the transaction will generally be impersonal and the customer will have limited opportunity to observe the fabrication process. Accordingly, many customers will prefer to observe steps in preparing the food product.
Production of ice-cream products with mixed-in ingredients, such as nuts, candy, and fruit, per the consumer's selection has gained in both popularity and availability in the United States. Per the conventional in-store, manual method, a finished, frozen ice cream product is provided in storage; and the desired mixed-in ingredients are manually worked into the ice cream on a cold surface via a manual kneading operation. A customer to the store can thereby obtain an ice-cream product with the extra mixed-in ingredients that they desire and can observe the mixing of ingredients into the ice cream.